Cache Poisoning 
    

Summary: Cache Poisoning is a web security vulnerability that occurs when an attacker manipulates the contents of a cache with malicious data. By exploiting this vulnerability, an attacker can insert malicious content into a cache, which can later be served to unsuspecting users, leading to various security risks and potential attacks.

Severity: High

Attack Vector: Remote

Complexity: Low

Impact: By successfully poisoning a cache, an attacker can serve malicious content to users, potentially leading to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks, code injection, data manipulation, unauthorized access, or the bypassing of security controls.

Affected IP Address: https://www.example.com/

Port: 443

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Identify a target system that relies on caching mechanisms, such as a web application with caching enabled.
2. Analyze the caching mechanism to understand its behavior and caching policies.
3. Craft a malicious payload, such as a specially crafted HTTP response, that includes content to be injected into the cache.
4. Exploit vulnerabilities in the caching mechanism, such as insufficient input validation or insecure caching configurations, to poison the cache with the malicious payload.
5. Verify that the malicious content is stored in the cache and subsequently served to users accessing the affected resources.

Recommendations:

To mitigate Cache Poisoning vulnerabilities, consider the following recommendations:
1. Implement proper input validation and sanitization to prevent the injection of malicious content into the cache.
2. Configure appropriate caching policies, ensuring that sensitive or user-specific data is not stored in the cache.
3. Use secure caching mechanisms that enforce separation of cached content between different users or sessions.
4. Regularly review and update caching configurations and mechanisms to address any potential vulnerabilities.
5. Implement secure coding practices to prevent injection attacks and vulnerabilities that could lead to cache poisoning.

References: 

1. OWASP - Cache Poisoning: https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Cache_Poisoning 
2. PortSwigger - Cache Poisoning: https://portswigger.net/web-security/cache-poisoning

Proof of Concept:

Please refer to the attached screenshot or video for a visual demonstration of a Cache Poisoning vulnerability.